Car Coupling. (open access)

Car Coupling.

Patent for a new and improved coupling for railroad cars. This design consists in "[t]he combination of the platform . . . having a spring buffer and a projection adjacent to and to one side of the buffer . . . the catch pivotally secured below the same and having a series of coupling shoulders on one side, the spring, and the stop arranged to act upon the side of the catch from which the coupling shoulders project" (lines 89-98).
Date: September 6, 1887
Creator: Ashford, Thomas Gresham.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Planter. (open access)

Planter.

Patent for a new and improved planter. This design consists in "slides over opposite holes in the bottom of its hopper and a dropping-cylinder provided with seed-cups on its periphery and removable screws rising from within the cups, whereby it may be changed . . . so as to plant corn or cotton" (lines 59-65).
Date: September 20, 1887
Creator: Becker, Philipp William Adolph
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cultivator. (open access)

Cultivator.

Patent for a new and improved cultivator. This design consists in "the combination, with the frame bearing the standards, of caster-wheels provided with shanks, which are vertically journaled in the bars at each side of said frame and in the ends of the cross-bar, the hand-lever which is secured at the forward end of the beam and pivotally connected to the center of said cross-bar and provided with a slot near its free end, the segmental upright, and the spring" (lines 16-25).
Date: March 29, 1887
Creator: Brown, Thomas Jefferson
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car Coupling. (open access)

Car Coupling.

Patent for a new and improved coupling for railroad cars. This design consists in "the draw-head having the open space at its front end, the longitudinal groove in its side, extending rearward from said space, and the transverse recess at the rear end of said groove, the coupling bar resting in the groove and having a lug at its rear end" (lines 92-98). Said lug is "pivoted in the recess, and the hook at its front end arranged within the open space, and the spring having its rear end secured to the side of the draw-head in rear of the recess" (lines 1-4).
Date: December 6, 1887
Creator: Keith, John David
System: The Portal to Texas History